


Now the Nightmare's Real

by cashewdani



Category: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-25
Updated: 2008-07-25
Packaged: 2018-01-15 02:46:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1288351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewdani/pseuds/cashewdani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Dr. Horrible has spent so much time dreaming about being with Penny and of joining the League, that once he’s in and Penny’s gone, he really doesn’t know what he’s supposed to dream about anymore.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now the Nightmare's Real

He shuts down the blog a few days following the attack at the press conference. The server kept crashing anyway, inundated with visitors wanting to get a glimpse of his thoughts. The wall comments from complete strangers, asking him to marry them, to be the father of their child, are too bizarre and he hates it.

Dr. Horrible has spent so much time dreaming about being with Penny and of joining the League, that once he’s in and Penny’s gone, he really doesn’t know what he’s supposed to dream about anymore.

It only lasts a little while, the apathetic daze, because by then Bad Horse has figured out that Dr. Horrible had very limited responsibility in Penny’s death. There’s talk of banishment, of ritualized torture. Eventually, it’s decided that he will be allowed to stay on, if only because of the shame his dismissal would have on the entire group. His punishment is being reduced to nothing more than a henchman. Being forced to take minutes of the meetings and fetch Bad Horse carrots while remaining silent during all discussions.

Dr. Horrible’s surprised how little time it takes before he’s dreaming of slicing off the steed’s head and placing it in the bed of some unsuspecting citizen a la _The Godfather_. His superior’s legs shattering during a gallop, and the resulting shotgun blast in his face to take him out of his misery.

The weeks drag on, and Horrible’s supposed to be working on killing someone else, this time someone political, but his heart’s not really in it. He sets fire to four frozen yogurt places and two Laundromats during off hours before the League forbids him from carrying out any more missions.

After Fake Thomas Jefferson has proposed the theft of the Constitution for the third time, this time with diagrams, Dr. Horrible honestly doesn’t know if he can take it. Here he is, still the bottom of the totem pole, just as much of a loser as he’s ever been, and there’s not really any way out this time.

He calls Moist and tells him he’s thinking of trying his hands at being a superhero. The ultimate act of misdirection which will provide him with even more power and the access to the resources needed to carry out his schemes.

Moist tells him, “It sounds like you’re having a nervous breakdown” and he probably is.

Horrible finds himself back in the basement, unearthing the jeans and the hoodies and his black boots that he swore he was never going to wear again. Slipping them on, they don’t feel right, but neither does this new red lab jacket.

He films what will be his final blog post, if he had anywhere to post it. Looking into the lens of the camera he tries to explain he’s sorry, and that maybe it’s fitting how his moniker is exactly how his life turned up, horrible.

His closing words are, “I can’t hold my head up.”

The following morning, the paper reports that Captain Hammer had managed to locate his nemesis. They go on to say that definitive details are not yet available, but it is believed that Dr. Horrible did not survive the encounter.

The same issue runs an obituary with only a first name, Billy. The text reads, _“He’s survived by a world that doesn’t even deserve to burn. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to help causes for the homeless.”_


End file.
